Glory for UCC after shoot-out
The Mauritius Cup will reside in Cork for just the second time in their history — the other was won in 1995 — and rounds off a memorable year for the club who won their first national senior crown, the Irish Hockey Trophy, in April.
Having seen DIT dump holders UCD out in the group stage to take over the favourites’ mantle, the Cork hosts did a number on the Dubliners in the semi-finals, winning 3-1 thanks to two Fionn O’Leary strikes and a cracker from Nigel Bateman. That setup a clash with the Belfast men, for whom goal machine Jordan Robinson had struck twice to hold off the challenge of Trinity.
Shrew Power gave UCC a 15th-minute lead but that was cancelled out by Ricky O’Neill’s second-half drag-flick.
But College were spot-on with their strokes, nailing all five to prevail 5-3 in the shoot-out. Fittingly, the decisive flick was taken by Andrew Gray, who finally has a varsity medal to his name after nine years of trying, which included final defeats in the colours of both CIT and UCC.
UCD made it three Chilean Cups in a row as they strolled past surprise finalists Queens on a 4-0 scoreline.
The Belfielders, backboned by nine Irish senior internationals, prevailed via a brace from Jeamie Deacon and one each for Caroline Hill and Emily Beatty.
Queens had qualified for the last four as a best runner-up to UCC in Pool B, but shocked a hotly-fancied UU side 1-0 to make the decider, while UCD saw off the hosts 2-0.
Elsewhere, new Ireland men’s coach Andrew Meredith has named a 23-strong squad for a five-day training camp in Amsterdam next week.
Shane O’Donoghue, David Cole, Jonny Bell and Drew Carlisle are among the relatively newer faces in the squad.
England-based former Cookstown men, David Ames and Ian Sloan, are once again omitted, raising further questions over their international futures.
See Digest for full results and Ireland squad
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